There was a request from our press department a few days ago for pictures of any objects in our collections whos use and purpose was a mystery. I think they were thinking about our mansion-house collections, but ever on the look out for ways to get the word out about archaeology, I sent them a picture of a little mystery from our excavations at Corfe Castle.
Lead and Iron mystery object from Corfe Castle excavations
This strange object is made from lead or a lead alloy with an iron rod extending inside the cylinder. The main ideas are that it is something military, as we found it in an early 17th Century layer in the castle, the time when the castle was involved in the English civil war. Or it may have been a light fitting, or……………….
It may be one of those objects that was made to do a certain job were there wasn’t already a tool for. Like many of the strange and wonderful tools in many sheds and garages around the world 🙂
Archaeology National Trust SW 